


Who We Fought For

by J_J_Janson



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Post-Canon, Travelling companions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-11-29 07:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11436003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_J_Janson/pseuds/J_J_Janson
Summary: After the war, both Silque and Faye are left feeling lost. Silque had devoted herself to Mila, and Faye to Alm. Together, the two go on a journey to find themselves. And maybe find something else on the way.





	1. Chapter 1

‘Dear Mom and Dad,

Alm’s coronation is coming up pretty soon! Can you believe he’s actually a prince?! I can! He’s always been so handsome and charming, and he’s always been a prince in my eyes!

I’m happy for him. But I don’t think I’ll stick around for the coronation. It’s not like he needs me here. I don’t know where else I’ll go now that the Deliverance are all going their separate ways, so I might come home. I’ll see you-’

Faye stopped as she heard footsteps approaching. Careful of the still-drying ink, she set it off to the side of her desk and put a book in front of her. If Alm was coming to visit her, she wanted to appear studious.

The footsteps drew closer, and Faye was left waiting for someone to make their presence known.

She’d been given a room to herself in Zofia Castle to await the coronation. The servants had called it simple when they showed it to her, but it was about half the size of her home in Ram Village. She had her own bed and dresser, a desk equipped with paper and even ink and quill pens for her use alone, and she even had a bookshelf. It held more books than Faye had read in her whole life. And each had decorative carvings shaped like rams. Faye had been delighted to get such a big room all to herself, but now it felt hollow and empty. There was so much space. There weren’t beds crammed into every spare inch, the dresser wasn’t stuffed with a family’s worth of clothes. There wasn’t anyone else to share this space with. 

With three sharp knocks, a stranger announced themselves. Faye sat back and groaned quietly. That was not Alm’s knock. She tried not to let her disappointment sink into her “Come in.”

Silque, the blue-haired cleric who had joined Alm’s Deliverance not long after the group left Ram Village, entered. “Hello Faye.” Serenity and grace pervaded her very being. Her amber eyes that always sought the good in others. Her soft voice that would always quiet to listen to others, but that could cut through cruel words like a knife. The soft smile she always had on, one that promised peace and kindness. Those lips that spoke of friendship and camaraderie, that gently but effectively tore down Faye’s walls and gifted Faye with a true friend. 

Faye sat up a bit straighter, and a weight she hadn’t noticed left her shoulders. Smiling at Silque felt like the easiest thing in the world. “Hello Silque, what brings you here?” The two women had bonded over the course of the war, even though Faye had been quick to push Silque away, and Faye was grateful to her now-best-friend for that perseverance. 

Silque’s smile faltered for a moment, a crack appearing in her serenity. “I’m afraid I’ve come to say goodbye, Faye.”

Faye shot out of her chair. “What? But Alm’s coronation is coming up?” 

Silque nodded. “Yes, and I regret leaving too soon to see it. But I feel confined in this castle. I’ve decided to wander the country, all of the newly reunited Valentia, and pass on the messages left by Mila and Duma. Mother Mila did much for me, and the least I owe her is to pass on her final message. Not to mention, I feel out of place in a castle like this. I’d feel more comfortable on a pilgrimage.”

Faye stood up and walked towards Silque, intending to give her friend a goodbye hug. However, various thoughts began to click together as she walked towards her friend. By the time she was in arms’ length of the other woman, Faye reached out and patted Silque on the shoulder. “Well, how about I go with you? I got so used to wandering around with the Deliverance, I still feel the itch to see the country. Can I come?”

Silque’s hesitation came not from reluctance, but from her effort to hide her giddiness. “I’d love to have you along, Faye. Let’s pack our things and leave at once.”

After months on the road, Faye knew how to pack quickly and effectively. Before she left, she added a brief note to the end of her letter and handed it off to a servant to be delivered to her parents. 

It seemed Faye was not going to be going home as soon as she thought.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Faye felt more alive on the road, covered in a thin layer of dirt, walking alongside Silque, than she had felt in the castle. Silque and Faye had left the castle, giving a message for Alm to a servant, and they had spent the last few weeks travelling together. 

At first, they’d been nervous because the people of the first village they had visited barricaded themselves inside their homes. However, Silque  had implored them to come out, mentioning that she was a priestess of Mila and that the two of them were former members of the Deliverance. They still had not gotten a warm welcome, but that got the villagers out of their huts. The villagers had dealt with bandits for years, and were slow to trust strangers. However, by the end of a day spent with Faye treating injuries and illnesses, and Faye helping rebuild the town’s fence, they were treated as heroes. The villagers had little, but still gave plenty to Silque and Faye. 

The next few villages had been the same. An initially wary welcome followed by a great surge of kindness. Many of them didn’t know how to feel about the deaths of Mila and Duma, the unification of Valentia, or the rise of King Alm and Queen Celica, and would likely spend a long time grappling with those issues. But all of them did believe in providing kindness to the people in front of them. 

Faye felt truly vindicated by the kindness of all of those villagers. She’d been proud to fight alongside Alm in the Deliverance, even when they faced Duma himself. But knowing that she had helped protect these people, that their destiny was in their own hands thanks in part to Faye, that knowledge filled Faye with pride. 

Travelling with Silque was what awakened those feelings in Faye.

But all of that made Faye wary when they entered a village that greeted the pair warmly from the outset, almost as if they had been waiting for them. 

“Welcome travellers! Come, enjoy your stay!” The village elder greeted, standing at the head of a welcome party. “We heard you were coming, and prepared a feast for you.”

“Sir, you need not welcome us so,” Silque replied. “We are simply pilgrims, and former members of the Deliverance. We seek to aid those we can and to spread Mila’s final teachings.”

Normally, everyone would go dead silent when Silque brought up Mila’s final teachings. What could she mean by that? Had Mother Mila cut herself off from humans? Had something happened to her? What did she say? What did she mean? What should they do now? None of these questions rocked the villagers. They all hid behind their bright smiles.

Faye whispered in Silque’s ear “This seems too good to be true. You shouldn’t trust someone who tries this hard to impress someone else.”

Silque kept a dignified expression on her face as she said “You’re quite right, Faye. I don’t think I should trust someone who went to war for the sake of a boy.”

Faye tried to come up with a clever retort, but she had nothing. Silque was right. 

Faye didn’t have time to think about that at the moment.

She addressed the village elder. “Tell us what you’re hiding. There’s no point in laying an ambush, we’ve escaped worse traps.”

Silque let out a sharp “Faye!” that drew Faye’s attention. Even when Faye had worked so hard to push Silque away, she had not received such a sharp rebuke. 

The village elder, however, did not deny the charge. Finally, he let out a sigh. “It seems our usual plan will not work. I will be straight with you then: stay the night, and leave as soon as possible tomorrow morning. If you wander at night, the witch will find you and kill you.”


End file.
